


A Stolen Rain and a Restored Crown

by Night-Mare (Aoife)



Series: Secondary Flames and Side Effects [3]
Category: Katekyou Hitman Reborn!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Author loves to chat in the Comments, Flame Active Character(s), M/M, Namimori has Sunnydale Syndrome, POV Superbi Squalo, Rainy Cloud Squalo, Stormy Sky Xanxus, Timoteo Vongola's A+ Parenting, Unconventional Uses for Dying Will Flames, Varia Arc (Reborn), Varia Basil
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-11
Updated: 2017-12-08
Packaged: 2018-12-26 15:23:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 9,721
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12061740
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aoife/pseuds/Night-Mare
Summary: Xanxus is returned, and the Varia Arc begins. Sequel toAlmost More Storm than SkyandAs Much Cloud as Rain.





	1. Chapter 1

The constant ache in his head easing is the first warning that something has finally changed. He’s gotten so use to the pain, and the numbness that the sudden clarity of thought throws him. He reaches for his Rain Flames automatically, seven years of pain and misery having trained him into using them to ease the splintered mess of mind and ice that’s been his normal since the coup. The resulting tranquility overdose has him out of it for the rest of the morning; it’s like thinking through syrup. He does manage to put two and two together, and come up with an impossible answer; Orcinus would have told him if the Family was planning to launch an assault on the Iron Fort, or if they’d gotten enough blackmail to finally get Xanxus back from the Ninth.

He has had command of the Varia for eight exasperating years. For seven of those years, he's barely been able to feel his Sky, has had shards of ice in his head and a curse leeching into his blood, and he has no idea how he’s held everything together. He’s spent those seven years biting his tongue until it bled, and attempting to keep a leash on his fellow Guardians, of doing what he had to do to keep the four of them alive for Xanxus. Of being so numb that the only time he could feel anything was when he was killing someone. Or fucking himself.

With all four known heirs dead - or if not, missing, as far as the rest of the Mafia were aware - the vultures have been circling. That had perhaps been their saving grace; the Varia has reemerged every generation in slightly different forms, but they were and always would be the Family's last line of defence, shock troops and boogiemen as much as they were assassins, and the lack of heirs meant that they had a lot of work to do, keeping the ‘peace’. Of course the Ninth had set him up more than once, had tried to send him on missions that would have killed anyone else. And would have killed him, if not for the Mist and Cloud Flames he’d taken pains to conceal from the old bastard.

But he survived, and got more skilled, and the state of the Alliance had gotten even rockier; it was why the Ninth had sent his pet Arcobaleno to train Dino. With the Superbi wavering, he needed the Cavallone indebted to him, and strong enough to counterbalance the threat his brother and father posed to him. He had pitied Dino whenever he was coming down from killing someone, when the shards of ice didn’t have his head so numb he couldn’t feel anything; he’d even chased Dino across most of Asia as a favour for Mammon at one point, and had been impressed by the results of Reborn’s training. His classmate was still far too clumsy when separated from his men, but with one of his men, he was capable enough. He’d sparred with Dino and the young Sky had survived him treating him like another Officer, which was an astonishing accomplishment by the Ninth’s pet Arcobaleno.

The instability of the Alliance also meant that the Ninth couldn't afford to purge any of them. They were too good, too useful, too hard to replace. Too highly skilled and far too hard to kill; the last two Varia Officers to die had been Tyr at his own hands and Ottabio at his brother’s - though he had claimed that kill too, for reasons of politics.

He was _still_ reeling from the overdose of his own Flames when the boundary alarms go off. The mooks find Xanxus di Vongola dumped _just_ inside the outer perimeter of the Varia Compound; he’s bleeding and frostbitten, and it's takes all four of his bonded Guardians working together to keep Xanxus alive while Lussuria figures out where to _start_ healing seven years worth of freezer burn. When Lussuria no longer needs him to propagate either their Sky’s blood or his Flames to keep him alive, he takes a moment to ring his brother, to find out what the fuck was going on.

His brother hisses a string of expletives and yells for their oldest cousin, his right hand, before the phone disconnects. There’s reports of an intruder in the compound less than an hour later. He groans and orders the mooks on guard duty to stand down and let his older brother and his cousin through. His brother has only become more melodramatic and vicious in the past seven years, and had been competent enough to kill an Officer in the aftermath of the coup. He’s contemplated co-opting Orcinus as the Rain Officer so he can _formally_ claim the currently vacant Cloud Officer’s position, but that would have complicated things even further, given the way his brother had had to play politics, to keep the Ninth off his back.

Orcinus wasn’t even all the way through the door to the infirmary when he demands to know what the fuck. He snarls at his brother for even asking the question, and Abalone, the oldest of his female cousin who had accompanied Orcinus had snorted with laughter at the interplay, and then swatted his older brother. “Orcinus, you’re talking to a _bonded_ Guardian who has just gotten his Sky back.” His brother rolled his eyes and his right hand.

“Yes, and the baby brother who I’ve only kept alive by skullduggery and playing nice with a man whose throat I want to slit. I need to know what happened if I’m going to do damage control; you _know_ what price that man tried to demand for keeping him alive.” He read between the lines; Orcinus had refused to share the details of his negotiations with the Ninth, but the way Abalone was tapping her fingers against her thighs, with the steel claw rings that were her preferred weapon, implied what the Ninth had asked for.

“Someone broke our perimeter and left his bleeding body for us.” He eyed the claw rings on Abalone’s fingers, and the way they were sparking.

“Mmm. Boss-honey’s body was absolutely _drenched_ in Mist Flames. Not Mammon’s; we had to burn the residue off before we could start stabilising him.” Lussuria piped in from where they were still debriding his wounds. “Need your Cloud Flames again Squalo-sweetheart; Boss-honey needs more blood, and I have no idea what putting someone else’s blood in his system right now will do. His Flames have always been too volatile to risk non-Guardian blood, and none of us are in a fit state to donate right now.”

He presses his Cloud Flame covered hands to his Sky’s side, and wills Xanxus’s blood volume to increase, until the blood beaded at the wound sites again, and the femminiello shoved him aside again, and went back to work coaxing skin tissue to regrow with Mammon’s aid.

“If it wasn’t you, and it wasn’t us, then _who_? You said that he was covered in Mist Flames -” He herds his brother and his cousin out of the infirmary; having this discussion over his Sky’s body when Lussuria is still frantically trying to keep him breathing isn’t going to be at all helpful. They need to plan how to deal with the aftermath of this; of course the moment he gets the two of them into his private office is when his brother decides to pull out the next _surprise_. He really is tempted to stab Orcinus for pulling _this_ surprise on him; the seven half rings in the case in front of him should be secured in the heart of the Iron Fort, but that doesn’t stop him taking the Cloud half-Ring from the case, and sliding it onto his thumb, and putting the Rain half-Ring on a chain around his neck. He can _feel_ the latent power in both Rings. “How?”

“We reminded someone that they were a Superbi.” Abalone’s smile was razor sharp, and he was sorely tempted to recruit _her_ instead; surely his brother could find another of their girl-cousins to serve as his right hand? “He coughed up this set readily enough; we were just preparing to steal the other half-rings, and then we were going to plan a retrieval. Looks like someone beat us to it.”


	2. Chapter 2

Having his Sky back clears his head. He hadn’t realised just how messed up the ice and the curse had made him until the effects were starting to fade and he had Sky Flames leeching into his body _instead_ ; even Belphegor was more stable now. Planning is much easier with the ability to think ‘straight’; they have half the Rings, and the fact the Rings have split in the first place is _telling_. It means they’ve finally rejected the old bastard. God only knows how long the old bastard has been concealing that the Rings had split; even photos _since_ Coyote had taken the half-rings had shown the Ninth wearing the Ring.

A little casual observation of the CEDEF headquarters makes for great entertainment. It’s obvious that someone in the Iron Fort has realised that the Don’s half of the Rings have gone ‘walkabouts’ despite the Mist fakes that the Ninth Generation are wearing - but hasn’t shared that fact with anyone other than the CEDEF. As there isn’t enough panic in the wider Family, who ever it was that knew, was doing damage control, and they didn’t know _where_ the Rings have _gone_ \- or even that Xanxus was no longer in the Cradle; the CEDEF on the other hand was like an anthill that had been kicked as people try to figure out what’s going on, and who could have taken the Rings. Not that anyone seems to have actually interrogated the only Superbi in a position to ‘steal’ the half rings in the first place; it’s almost as if they’d either forgotten that Coyote was a Superbi, or ignored that a Superbi might have a reason to steal the Rings.

(Orcinus was having a _lot_ of fun. The gloves had come off, and he and Abalone were making _complete_ nuisances of themselves.)

It means that when the crazy fucking Sky that runs the CEDEF draws the half-Rings _he_ has custody of, and tries them on - and is rejected - they know about it before the Ninth does. It thoroughly amuses all six of them to watch that Mist-acquired footage whilst perched around Xanxus’s infirmary bed. Watching the Flame Ghost to pop out of the ring and bitch-slap Iemitsu, was hysterical; the CEDEF’s Sky’s face was absolutely priceless, and the First let something _else_ slip that they hadn’t known. Sawada had been a potential heir up until the point he put the Rings on. He wasn’t now; that had been a firm rejection of him, but the most interesting part of _everything_ that the First had said was that he hoped his son was less of a fuck-up and a disappointment. Which explained where Reborn had disappeared to; the Ninth’s pet Arcobaleno had successfully beaten Dino into shape, and had obviously been contracted to do the same thing to Sawada’s brat.

His Shitty-Sky puts _his_ half of the Ring on, after having watched that footage with a great deal of caution. He’s not sure what his Sky was expecting to happen, but there’s a distinct draw on his Sky’s very low reserves; he feeds his shitty-Sky some of his Cloud Flames, and then there’s a burst of Sky Flames, and he half expects to see the First also shouting at his shitty-Sky, but instead there’s a younger version of Donna Daniela, standing there, shaking her head, and tapping her toes at them. She hugs him, and then hugs his shitty-Sky. Not berate, or slap, or any of what the First did to Sawada, but a hug. He and the other Guardians slip out of the infirmary before Xanxus can cry; they have a second set of Rings to intercept.

He puts a number of _very_ visible watchers on each of the major and minor ports and airports. They have no intention of making it _easy_ for the CEDEF to hand off the rings to Sawada’s brat, who could only be intended as a puppet; the kid was young to hold the Family in his own right, and while Reborn could work miracles, it took even him _time_ to work them. It had taken him almost _six_ years to beat Dino Cavallone into shape and Dino was by far the youngest Don in the Flame Mafia right now; counting backwards from the last sighting of Reborn in Italy, at best he’d been with the Sawada brat for twelve months. Likely less.

What he hadn’t expected was for the CEDEF’s Rain-in-residence to turn up at Fiumicino and get skittish the _minute_ he saw one of the mooks watching. And then to turn tail and make a run for the _land_ border with Austria. Which was fascinating, and he pulled the watchers back and decided he was going to chase the teen himself; he wasn’t quite sure _why_ it had felt so _right_ to chase the brat down. He’d been aware of Basil's existence since the boy first went Active. While he himself wasn't the most sensitive of Flame Users - that would be Mammon among the Varia - he was still a fellow Rain Active, and that meant that the brat's use of Rain on some of the more highly strung staff in the Iron Fort very obvious to him. (And the defensive use of Rain to make ‘certain’ people impotent was elegant, but concerning.)

The brat was good. Really good. Almost Officer Quality which was as it should be given that he was being mooted as Sawada’s successor if and when control transferred to the tenth generation. He’d hold his judgement on whether he would be any better than Sawada; he couldn’t be any _worse_.

He wanted to know _where_ the lunatic Sky who notionally ran the CEDEF had found the rather competent brat, Basil had appeared maybe two years after Xanxus had been frozen, and had gone Active shortly afterwards. The most likely reason for that had been that the CEDEF had been doing their own Flame experimentation; there had been rumours about them working on alternate ways to activate dying will mode and it was more than likely that the brat had been one of the experimental subjects. He'd been following Sawada around as his apprentice ever since. It was a little disturbing that he was the only _visible_ former subject. He’d have to set the mooks to investigate, though it was likely any ‘failures’ had been disposed of with Storm Flames.

He chases Basil north, through Austria, and into Hungary. Then Romania, and fuck was the kid _really_ going to use the Silk Road? Taking the land route through Asia was going to be _interesting_. Fortunately, this wasn’t the _first_ time he’d done so. Though the first time he’d done this had been a lot easier, as his 'victim' at the time had been Dino, and Skies were ridiculously hard to kill when they were _expecting_ an attack, whereas most Rains were more fragile and unable to self-heal, which meant he had to pull his blows, given that Xanxus had shouted at him not to kill the brat when he’d reported in. (The first time he done this, it had been the end result of a complex exchange of favours from which he had definitely come out on top. He’d gotten to torment pipsqueak Dino, and had gotten Mammon to take over running the Varia’s finances. It had been more like a vacation for him than anything else.)

Judging by how well the brat was doing, and the half dozen traps and ambush set ups he’d hit so far on route, he might actually _finally_ have a non-Superbi potential to fill the Rain Officer’s role; he could see Xanxus liking the brat if he was introduced to him as a fellow street rat, rather than Sawada’s minion. If the brat made it to the end of the Silk Road and into Japan without him breaking any of his bones, he’d have to go in for a little larceny and compulsory recruitment. He wasn’t letting Sawada keep anyone this potentially competent.


	3. Chapter 3

Chasing the little CEDEF Rain along the Silk Road is _fun_. More fun than he’s had in years - the only way this could be more entertaining would be if he had his Sky along to play with between his bouts of stalking the little Rain. But the ice was gone, which meant he could at least feel the tired-but-recovering hum of his Sky in the back of his head.

The knowledge that his Sky was safe was reassuring, and that let him enjoy the chase. The ambush attempts and traps from the little Rain were adorable. The brat’s weapon was an odd one; it looked like a boomerang, but _wasn’t_ ; and whoever had taught him to use it had taught him _very_ well. And taught him to use it against a sword wielder, which made him narrow his eyes thoughtfully. He could see the little Rain being good enough to _potentially_ take him down in another few years. It just added to the likelihood that Sawada had been planning to challenge for the Rings himself; and that made the memory of Primo bitch-slapping Sawada all the sweeter.

The way the brat moved and set traps, made him think that Lal Mirch was the little Rain’s primary trainer, especially given that he knew that despite the Flames she had been _seen_ using, her original primary Flame had been Rain. Basil certainly moved like the one or two adult COMBUSIN members he’d run into in the past, and the Rain Arcobaleno as well - who, if rumor was right, had been Lal Mirch’s previous protégé - and set traps like the COMBUSIN did when they were trying to catch flame-using mafioso that had crossed the line and made a nuisance of themselves in a way that the government had to pay attention to.

He hopes it was Mammon’s fellow Arcobaleno; he’d hate to think that Sawada was this competent himself. It would make him so much harder to kill. And they were going to have to kill him to remove him from command of the CEDEF; after some of the things the man had said and done during the long seven years, there was no way he could tolerate the man’s existence anywhere _near_ his Sky. Sawada had been one of the people arguing against defrosting his Sky, and that was unforgivable.

Popular rumor was that Basil was Sawada’s Rain, but there couldn’t be a bond there. If Belphegor had been in the level of distress he’s pushed the brat to more than once on this little chase, he, Lussuria, Mammon or even their shitty-Sky would have come to his rescue by now (of course, they’d have wound Belphegor up for years over the need for a rescue in the first place). That no one had come to the little Rain’s aid was ugly. Basil had to be one of the younger Guardians in Sawada’s set _if_ he was part of his set at all, and they _all_ kept an eye on Belphegor. Mammon was the most effective at doing that discreetly without driving Belphegor up the wall in rage at being babied ; he’d partnered the two of them after the first and only time they’d had to rescue Belphegor from himself.

The way that Basil talks makes him twitch, and he forces contact another three times that day, and concentrates on sparring verbally with the brat, and allowing the kid to be the one on the physical offensive. The brat’s verbal affectations are interesting. He has his own; if everyone expects him to be loud, and the constant ‘Voooiii’, then when he’s being quiet, no one registers his presence. Or mixes him up with one of the brat pack, which has it’s own benefits. But ones that are as consistent as the CEDEF’s Rain’s are; they stay even when he switches the language he uses, the brat’s register stays archaic. It clearly isn’t an intentional affectation, one that can be turned on and off, the way his tics can be. When he refers to Sawada as “Master” for the third time, he flinches. No teenager should be referring to his boss that way - fuck that, even Levi at his most subservient didn’t call their shitty-Sky, Master.

He shuddered at the implications of that train of thought and _hoped_ that he was wrong. That was just a nasty mental image. He shook his head, and the brat took the opportunity to escape again, and he took advantage of the break in contact to check in with the others.

“You’re being such a baby Cloud, Squ-chan. But it’s cute!” He snarled at the femminiello, who he hadn’t been expecting to answer the phone. “How on earth have you been hiding your Primary Flame so successfully?” He made a rude gesture at the phone.

“Because I used _appropiate_ opportunities to indulge my inclinations.” He pressed two fingers to his temple and rubbed, trying to ease the headache that was already forming. His shitty-Sky was there, he could ride herd on the other idiots. “You could learn something from me on that one, Lussuria. Pass me to Xanxus.”

“Shark-trash.” Something settled further in the back of his head at the familiar greeting from his Sky, and he basked in the deliberate Sky Flames being fed down their bond.

“There’s something wrong with the CEDEF.” They’d already known that, but the lack of aid from the other members of the CEDEF for the little Rain was more disturbing evidence to that effect.

“We knew that already, shark-trash. Mammon’s infiltrating and I’m _reading_.” The last word was spat out. “Don’t kill the spice-trash you’re chasing. If nothing else, we’ll need him to put the CEDEF back together after we’ve completed the Rings.”

“Wasn’t planning to, shitty-Sky. But Sawada’s got the brat calling him Master.” The hiss on the other end of the phone line was telling.

“Bring him back, either in one piece or in a state that Lussuria can put back together, Squalo.” His Sky ordered him.

“Sure, Boss. Not sure he’s got the Rings though.” The baby-CEDEF Rain was leaking Flames everywhere; which was why he thought the brat wasn’t carrying the ‘real’ half-Rings, but did make him easy to track.

“Shit. Keep after the spice-brat. Even if the rings _are_ fake you’re still to bring him back in one piece; I’m going to _shoot_ Sawada.” His shitty-Sky sounded genuinely pissed. “Is he really planning to put his fourteen year old _civilian_ son up against me? Let me out of this fucking bed Lussuria; someone needs to -”

He heard a brief scuffle on the other side of the phone, and then there was the shitty-Sun back on the line. “Boss-honey,” there was an odd ‘squelching’ sound, “is still healing and can’t come out to play. But he is feeling lively enough that I have a knife to remove from my side. Although he was kind enough to miss anything tricky to heal.” The femminiello sounded pleased. “Stay in bed, Boss-honey, or I’ll get the Flame-resistant bindings out and use them.” There was a snarl of displeasure and he shoved Rain Flames down the bond to his Sky. “Thank you for that Squ-chan. Need any assistance with toying with the pretty little Rain you’re hunting?”

“My prey.” Lussuria whistled. And he cursed at his unconscious choice of phrasing.

“Oh you really are a baby-Cloud, Squ-chan.” The femminiello sounded amused, and he snarled - as much at himself as at the Sun - and snapped the phone shut, cutting the call. He shook his head to clear it and found somewhere safe to take a break; then settled down to clean his sword. The kid had a knack for talking people into giving him lifts and hiding him, but he’d catch up with him again in a few hours, and compared to the CEDEF Rain, his reserves were deeper, and had Flames more useful for personal augmentation. Sure, he could pin the brat down in one of the one places he’d slept, but that would mean getting civilians involved which was frankly a headache he really didn’t feel like dealing with at the moment.


	4. Chapter 4

Namimori is the weirdest fucking town in the _world_. It’s _full_ of people with sufficient reserves to go Flame Active. And who pay fuck all attention to two Flame Actives playing chase over the rooftops of the town. It’s fucked up; even deep in Varia territory people didn’t ignore these sorts of antics. He still has to admit to a little bit of surprise when the little CEDEF Rain leads him to a Rain teetering on the edge of Activation, a baby Sky - one in a weird state of partial Activation - and an Active Storm Cloud who couldn’t be more than a generation or two away from Superbi blood, given the feel of his Flames and the colour of his hair; he doesn’t recognise him though, and he _knows_ all of his generation; he’ll have to do some investigating.

The three of them look like dead ringers for members of the First Generation, too. Which is fucked up, especially given the way his own Sky is a dead ringer for Secondo - who had a Superbi Cloud. With a few minor variations in hair and eye color, he'd think he was looking at Giotto, G and Ugetsu. The similarity makes freeze briefly, but he recovers quickly. The cousin needs significant extra training; he’s over specialised, and he has no idea how the teen has lasted this long throwing dynamite around like it was candy, and with Flames he obviously didn’t know how to use particularly well. Explosives specialists didn’t have particularly long lifespans.

His cousin is easy enough to deal with, especially at this short a range; after they’d wrested the Family from the Ninth, he’d have to turn one of his cousins loose on the teen; the little First-clone was still Vongola-blood even if he was Sawada-spawn, and would need a good set of Guardians to keep himself safe. The baby Rain reminds him of one of the swordsmen he’s fought. More so when the teen’s baseball bat transformed into a sword, but it only takes him a glance at the kid’s stance to realise that he’s basically untrained, for all that he has excellent reflexes, and goes down like a sack of potatoes. Who had he fought that looked like that? And why a transforming baseball bat of all things? A concealed sword rang alarm bells. . Fuck, he had so much research to do when he got home.

The little-CEDEF-Rain struggles back to his feet, the Flame of Hyper Dying Will Mode on his forehead, and then there’s a gunshot, and the baby Sky makes the jump to Dying Will Mode - which means that there has to be one of the Arcobalenos nearby. They’re the only ones other than his shitty-Sky that use those rounds; and if there’s an Arcobaleno using a firearm - it has to be Reborn or Lal Mirch herself. He scans his surroundings while dodging the little Sky; he’s not bad for a civilian, but he’s not even at the level pipsqueak Dino was when they both quit the Academy.

He stretches his senses out, and keeps dodging the baby Sky’s attempt to hit him ... and there; The Sun Arcobaleno. Who specialises in tutoring heirs these days; the Falco heiress, the Cavallone Decimo, and now the Ninth’s alternate to his shitty-Sky. While he’s tempted to steal the baby Sky away before Sawada can force the CEDEF half-Rings onto his son, he’s after Basil right now, and given the way the little-CEDEF-Rain’s not been willing to surrender the Ring case he’s carrying, he needs to get the teen out of the middle of this. The fucked up Sky in command of the CEDEF wasn’t going to be happy about any of this, and Sawada was as bad as the Ninth when he was thwarted, and he wouldn’t wish the ice on his worst enemy. He’s also under no illusion about his ability to take on an Arcobaleno who has something - or someone - they’re protecting, the way Reborn obviously has; sparring with Mammon over the past seven years has taught him that much. While the curse that the Arcobaleno bore had a tendency to ‘eat’ their Flames, they could manage intense bursts of power in dangerous situations.

A trained Sky is an absolute pain in the ass to deal with, capable of some completely bullshit tricks, but given that he’s used to sparring with Xanxus and had chased a fully-trained Dino across Asia, a half-trained barely Active Sky with a weird Flame condition is no match for him. At least his Sky instincts seem to be functioning - he was still trying to put himself between him and the two downed Guardian candidates. They had splashes of the baby Sky’s Flames all over their own Flames, but didn’t have full bonds to the baby Sky, not yet.

And the little-CEDEF-Rain is even better than he thought; he’s still on his feet, still trying to protect the baby Sky. He blinks, and concentrates on the little-CEDEF-Rain; there’s no bond, and the only Sky Flames splashed across the little-CEDEF-Rain’s make him feel queasy. The lack of a full bond though, was part of the reason that Basil was still on his feet; an unbonded Flame User would do a lot for a Sky, especially one with Flames as all-encompassing as were leaking off the baby-Primo clone.

It’s only the fact that he has a full bond to his own Sky that means he can actually attack the baby-Sky in front of him. The baby Sky’s Flames tug at him, and he reaches for his own Sky’s Flames and he wraps them around himself to ward the baby Sky’s Flames off. Of course that’s when the not-so pipsqueak Dino decides to interrupt, and if he wasn’t so intent on kidnapping the little-CEDEF-Rain, he’d have had a lot of fun sparring with his old classmate. Dino’s kept his skills up; the Sun Arcobaleno had done an excellent job of beating skills into him. The moment the baby Sky drops out of Dying Will mode, he snatches the little-CEDEF-Rain up, and pockets the Ring case the teen has carried half-way around the world; there’s some power in the case, enough that if they’re fakes, they’re good ones with focuses that should be recycled. Basil tries to struggle, but he’s exhausted, and he’s easy enough to knock out, with a touch of his own Rain Flames. The Sun Arcobaleno restrains Dino for some reason; he’d expected to be chased out of town by the Cavallone Decimo.

Mammon’s obviously been keeping half an eye on him through their bond and their oddball locator trick; he wants to grumble, but he can’t. Not when his phone vibrates with directions to a small airstrip where their jet was waiting for him less than five minutes after he retreats from the confrontation. Once he’s on board, and they’re taxiing down the runway, he dumps the little-CEDEF-Rain in one of the seats on the jet, and uses flame-resistant ropes to secure Basil to the seat. The teen sleeps through the takeoff, sleeps through him taking the time to shower in the little executive bathroom on board, and change into a clean uniform; even sleeps through him heating up a meal, and eating it. He really isn’t surprised when the teen sleeps for the the entire flight back to Italy. He doubts Basil did more than catnap for the entire length of the Silk Road, and probably didn’t eat that much, either; given how easily he’d carried Basil, the teen couldn’t weigh more than a hundred pounds soaking wet.

Bel, and the Boss’s bond with him has made him soft. He used to hate kids, and now he’s getting all fucking paternal over Sawada’s apprentice. Bah. He’ll have to take one of the Prince’s annihilation missions at this rate just to feel clean again.


	5. Chapter 5

He pours the little-CEDEF-Rain into one of the seats of his Ferrari, straps him into it, and then wedges his bags on top of him to make sure Basil stays in place. Using the other Rain as a luggage rack makes him feel a little better, and at this point he doubts the little-CEDEF-Rain is waking up without the aid of either a Storm or a Sun, and one that understands Tranquility inside out at that; he hadn’t used that much of his own Rain on the teen, but he’d obviously been exhausted by their little game. He enjoys taking the winding roads back to his territory well above the speed limit, but he has the reflexes to do it relatively safely, and none of the local police officers would stop a known Varia vehicle. They’re all far too well paid to do anything other than turn a blind eye, and for those too stupid to take the bribes, well, they’re cowed by the tales about what happened the last time someone tried stopping Bel, who had a tendency to butcher anyone who pointed a gun at him.

He's right about Basil needing a Sun or a Storm to wake him up. The teen sleeps all the way back to his territory, even when he laughs and drifts his Ferrari through the gates into the compound. He gets a raised eyebrow when he stomps into the well guarded centre of his territory, where he’d insisted his Sky’s suite had to be and _gently_ dumps the little-CEDEF-Rain on the end of his shitty-Sky’s bed. His shitty-Sky isn’t the only one in the room; the femminiello is fluttering over their shared Sky and he can feel Mammon lurking, though the Mist isn’t visible. His Sky has to have improved a lot since he began his little chase along the Silk Road, to have been allowed out of the infirmary, but he obviously wasn’t anywhere near healthy yet. Not with the low level anxiety Lussuria was radiating, and the fact his shitty-Sky wasn’t trying to punt the femminiello out of the window _for_ the fluttering.

“Brought you a little gift, shitty-Boss. He’s good. Very good. But -” Lussuria, already lit up with Sun Flames, pokes the teen in the forehead before he can stop the femminiello, and the little-CEDEF-Rain wakes up with a start, dropping straight into Dying Will Mode, the flame on his forehead flickering and guttering like the teen’s Flame Reserves are almost out.

“Xanxus-dono, Sawada-dono -“ He flinches as the first words out of the little-CEDEF-Rain mouth only confirms for him that he’d made the right choice in stealing him away from the Idiot Sky that was in charge of what _should_ be the Family’s Intelligence arm. He hopes that the teen’s avoided anything too traumatic, because right now, he can feel Xanxus’s flames rising through their bond, and whilst they have some of the same taste that they did when he bonded Bel a decade previously, there's a dangerous, bloody edge that reminds him of the determination that led to the coup, and had carried _him_ through _butchering_ Enrico and two of his Guardians.

“That bastard has you calling him Dono?” The room is now heavy with Storm-tainted Sky Flames, his shitty-Sky sitting up from where he’d been lounging against a pile of cushions something - possibly the intuition which seems to have awoken while he was on ice - prodding him to life. The Flames lick at Squalo through his guardian bond and he basks in their warmth briefly, and then he unfastens the chain around his throat, and swaps the Rain Ring on his hand - the gift from Donna Daniela - for the Cloud Ring. There’d been a note with it originally, and he still had it tucked away. A reminder that there’d be a moment when he’d _need_ to be his Sky’s Cloud; this felt like that moment. He holds the two Rain Rings - the half-Ring, and Daniela’s - in his clenched fist, and waits to see what his shitty-Sky will do.

The Dying Will Flame on Basil’s forehead fizzles out as his shitty-Sky’s frustration at Iemitsu and his father’s willful blindness feeds the teen’s Flames to the point where their weight makes it clear they're about to physically manifest. And not through the medium of a Ring, but in their own right.

“Come here, trash.” Basil stands, and does approach, though he's very obviously reluctant. He has to give the little Rain credit for the fact he moves, and his spine is as straight as it is, because Sawada has to have been telling tales out of school - painting the Varia as out of control lunatics - and the past week has demonstrated how the teen has been trained to counter _him_. The little Rain does flinch slightly when one of Xanxus's hands lights up,but unlike most people calms almost immediately as the Flames shade to the red-orange of Wrath. Which is it’s own sort of telling.

His Sky has always been at least as capable with the Storm facet of his Flames as with the Sky aspect; he was good enough with his Storm to pull tricks that even Bel and Coyote Nougat both struggled with, with comparative ease. Tricks like the one that has Storm Flames whipping around the little-CEDEF-Rain he had dragged home with him, erasing the taint of Sawada’s Flames from the teen’s own.

The rings in his living hand bite into his flesh, and he debates whether to step in between the two of them, but his Sky and the little Rain are already halfway to harmonised, and Basil looks almost relaxed, despite the Wrath Flames that could so easily consume him. It’s like there’s been a weight taken off his shoulders. The two of them, his shitty-Sky and his little kidnapped Rain stare at each other for a very, very long moment, and he feels Mammon settle onto his shoulder, and drop their invisibility. Even Lussuria has stilled. And the femminiello is rarely still unless they’re hunting someone. "I can keep you away from Sawada permanently, but it'll cost." Basil looks from his shitty-Sky to him and back again and he can tell the little Rain is confused.

“I'm not only capable of being my Sky's Rain Guardian.” He lights the Cloud Ring now on his index finger, and allows the purple Flame to dance above it for a fraction of a second. He can see when things click for the little Rain from the look in his eyes and not a second after the little Rain nods. Basil manages to contain his flinch as his shitty-Sky's Flames shade closer to ‘true’ Sky-orange in response to his nod, but he still backs out of immediate reach. He can tell it's instinctual - his Sky can, too, given that he doesn’t reach for Basil - and he opens his clenched fist, showing the two Rings. Basil hisses, presumably at the sight of the two Vongola half-Rings; the one on his thumb, and one in the palm of his hand, but he can also see the moment the little Rain sees _all_ the implications. Including that the Rain ‘slot’ amongst his shitty-Sky’s bonded is available. There's a wide eyed nod, and the teen lets his stranglehold on his Flames loose, and suddenly there are Rain Flames rising to meet the Sky Flames that still saturate the room. Rain Flames almost as pure as Bel's Storm Flames and just as desperate as the Prince's had been when the femminiello had carried the boy home eight years earlier.

That bond had been created between a Sky at the peak of his condition, and a well-trained eight year old. This one was forming between a Sky still healing from the best part of a decade on ice, and an exhausted - and injured - teenager running on fumes. It ends with his Sky and the brat on the floor, Bel's Flames eating through the door, and him Propagating Luss's Flames just so the Sun can keep the pair of exhausted idiots breathing.

Neither should even have attempted what they just had, but his shitty-Sky was stubborn as hell, and the little Rain was obviously equally so. He probably should have made the two of them wait until Lussuria had given them both the all clear, but he didn’t have the heart to deny the little Rain what a Guardian bond could offer, the sense of home, of safety, of being needed. He envied Basil a little for how easily the two of them had bonded, but that was just him being annoyed at the amount of grief his shitty-Sky had put him through before they fully bonded. And at least here, they had Mammon to conceal the compound until they had his shitty-Sky back up to full health. Once Xanxus was back on top of his game, and had a complete Guardian set along with the Vongola Rings, Sawada and the Ninth would _never_ be able to fuck with them again. (As proud as he was of his abilities, Squalo couldn’t - wouldn’t - have been in a position to go toe-to-toe with Iemitsu on his own, even if he’d wanted to.)

He probed at the bond, at the new sensation, trying to get a feel for it, a taste for what it would bring with it, given the way it had tried to entwine with his own bond with his shitty-Sky. He's only half surprised when it settles into feeling like a sibling bond; it was either that, or a bond like his, and he was too selfish to share his Sky like that. And from what he experienced in the Iron Fort, and later found out about his shitty-Sky’s early childhood, and the way the experiments into Dying Will Flames generally went and their normal ‘subjects’ they’d had a lot in common. Given that he was well aware of how sexually aggressive his shitty-Sky’s shitty-siblings had been with the Boss before his sojourn on ice - fuck, if that had been one of the things they'd bonded over, let it have been another CEDEF brat, not the Sky he'd been taught to call 'Master'. At least his shitty-Sky’s shitty-siblings were dead, at his or at other Superbi’s hands. He'd even remember to go to fucking Mass, because they weren't ready to go to war with the CEDEF. Not yet. Xanxus was likely the stronger Sky when he was healthy, but he’d need time to regain his stamina if this was going to come down to the two of them going head-to-head with Dying Will Flames.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This and [Chapter 4 of Sibling Skies](http://archiveofourown.org/works/12150576/chapters/29602512) are direct parallels of each other; they share the dialogue, but each is from a different PoV.

"So what _have_ you done with Basil, Squalo?" He manages to suppress his flinch; having his school friend successfully infiltrate his office - especially after Orcinus’s antics - was not how he’d been expecting today to go. Dino’s sprawled in one of the comfortable chairs that are normally concealed under Mist Flames. And Dino’s Sun is there too, and that meant they out-numbered him, because he’d found Romario’s damn Varia records, and if he’d kept up his training - and learned to fight alongside his Sky - the two of them would be a fucking headache to fight. Romario makes a sound in the back of his throat, and he was amused by the sheepish look on Dino’s face. That was a very different relationship than his own with his Sky, and he eyed the weapon that the Sun held; he would have put Romario and Xanxus in a room to talk Flame-related firearms when his Sky was a bit healthier.

"Basil's in the infirmary with the Boss and Lussuria. The Idiot had done a number on him with his Flames, and brainwashing, and I chased him the full length of the Silk Road, Bronco." He’s playing with his Flames, sothing them; the second invasion of his territory today has him on edge, and the implicit accusation in Dino’s voice has him somewhat on edge. (He should have expected the first invasion; he had yelled at Orcinus about needing to check on _all_ of the blood Superbi, because what the fuck was one doing in Japan with Sawada’s brat whilst _that_ poorly trained - so his brother had countered by ‘popping’ in for the memory so he could investigate.) "Voooiii. Stop staring at me like that; I hid that damn Flame from everyone because I didn't feel like dealing with all the shitty poaching attempts getting worse. It's not a personal insult."

"You don't behave like a Cloud, Squalo." Dino’s deadpan statement had him laughing hysterically. It was almost as bad as Lussuria’s response to him chasing Basil; he had no idea how people had been ignoring his Flame-type for the past decade.

"First thing I did after Donna Daniela's death forced me to wake that Flame up to keep my shitty-Sky from doing anything stupid was carve out a fucking territory, Bronco, and then fort up in it with my Sky. Classic fucking Cloud behaviour; everyone just read it through their own fucking filters. Now what the fuck are you _really_ here for? I know you know Superbi practicality too well to think I'd slit the Rain-brat's throat when he could be useful; I'd be more likely to send him up to Orcinus and Abalone for deprogramming, if my shitty-Sky hadn't decided to keep him." His Cloud Flames had Dino hypnotised, but the Bronco was making no attempt to tempt him into his Harmony for which he was grateful - and curious enough to alter his vision briefly to look into the Flame spectrums. He had to bite his lip to stop himself giggling at what he saw; he wondered if Dino realised he had a Cloud already staking a claim on him. .

"There's a plan. The Fifth and Daniela confirmed as much, but given that my still mostly Sealed baby brother is being forced into a Ring scramble with your overpowered lunatic of a Sky, I wanted _your_ reassurance that this wasn't going to end up with any of my baby brother's Guardian-candidates dead." The mention of the Fifth in the context of what was going on left him curious, but he wanted to slap Dino up the side of his stupid face for thinking they’d kill off any of the brats. Neither he nor Xanxus was _that_ Stupid, and he wasn’t sure he could rein in his possessiveness long enough to let any woman near his Sky, which meant Sawada’s brat was the primary choice for Unidicesmo. And killing off a Sky’s Guardians was a fantastic way to end up dead.

"Nah. One of them is a cousin. Worse we'll do the brats is beat the Stupid out of them." He’s amused when Dino winces; he’d rather enjoyed chasing him across Asia, despite the ice in his head. His eyes narrowed as the second Flame Ghost mentioned caught his attention. "Daniela _and_ the Fifth?" Dino’s cheeks pinked, just a little bit, and oh, he wasn’t going to leave _that_ alone. Being as clumsy as he had been at the Academy had left Dino impossible to embarrass, so for the memory of the interaction to make him blush ...

"Giotto stuck his oar in briefly, too." He refused to take the bait.

"You're _blushing_ , Bronco." This was _hilarious_.

"I could demonstrate, Squalo." Fuck. Who had invaded his office _now_? "My wife let me borrow her connection to the Cloud Ring, young Cavallone."

He facepalmed at the sight of the Vongola Fifth - who he recognised from his Varia portrait - sprawled in one of the vacant chairs and leering at Dino. "Voooiii, seriously, Bronco? Only you would have a Flame Ghost this determined to flirt with you."

The Fifth eyed him. "Says the Superbi who has obviously never tried Cavallone cock. And I'm here because Daniela's currently too busy plotting Timoteo's demise. Getting to flirt with Dino is just a very welcome bonus." Dino was scarlet, and he did not need to think about his friend’s cock. Not when he was still waiting for the all clear to pounce on Xanxus still.

"Voooiii. I have my Sky back. If I’d wanted to try the Horse out, I would have done it a decade ago." The Fifth stuck out his tongue at him, and he caught Dino facepalming himself out of the corner of his eye.

"It's a shame. He's a Cavallone; they've all got very, very pretty cocks.” There was an audible click as Romario cocked his weapon again, and oh, that was a fascinating insight into the dynamic of their bond, and what had been going on with the other half of the Rings. “Moving on. Daniela and Giotto need you to bear something in mind, Squalo; Tsunayoshi is still Sealed despite the Arcobaleno's efforts. She thinks that it may need Xanxus’s Wrath to finish purging it - and even if _we_ could remove it, perhaps it would be better for him to do so." He eyed the Ghost warily. That smacked of a sort of manipulation that would make his shitty-Sky _rage_ if it was done to him, and he wasn’t sure if he wanted to be involved in doing it to another Sky.

"Juliano. No manipulating my little brother that way. If he's going to be Xanxus's Sky, then it's got to be _his_ choice." The Bronco had a temper. And had _definitely_ claimed Sawada’s brat as a kin-Sky given the way his Flames had just flared, and the _strength_ of the flare. "I'm going back to Japan to teach Tsuna how to 'handle' other Sky Users trying to impinge on his Will, once I've checked on Basil and resolved a few minor issues at 'home'." He mentally crossed himself in relief; that was one less piece of shit for him to find a solution for. If they’d arrived in Namimori and the brat had been little more than a puppet for Sawada, they’d have been hard pushed to avoid killing him.

"Good. He needs it." Juliano's lips curled into a wicked smile. "Giotto would disapprove of me showing you this, but you'll appreciate it, I think." The Flame Ghost waved his hands, and shaped Mist Flames in a complex fashion, and then there was an illusionary scene forming on his desk, and he thoroughly appreciated getting to watch Giotto berate, and then cold-cock Iemitsu again, and he thought he had the scene down well enough to replay it at his leisure now. That was going to be a new favourite memory.

"Oh, I could watch that over, and over. Can we bribe Giotto into doing it again?" He snorted in laughter at Dino’s question, and Juliano and Romario both chuckled as well.

"Unfortunately, it's unlikely. But if Xanxus doesn't kill him, we'll at least be monitoring him to make sure if he reproduces again there can be an intervention so he doesn't attempt to Seal any more heirs." Juliano swiped a hand through the illusion, and then settled back into one of the chairs.

His amusement, and the casual use of Mist Flames by a non-authorised user had roused Mammon from their nap, and as he’d been ignoring the Mist Officer’s ‘report’ prod in favour of continuing to pay attention to the occupants of his office, the little Mist appeared in a flare of their Flames to investigate what was going on. Mammon materialised in the chair opposite the one that Juliano was sprawled in. "Mou. I was napping; whoever was responsible for waking me owes me €10.000."

"For some reason Flame Ghosts don't get access to hard currency so charge it to my successor." Juliano allowed Sky and Mist Flames to dance over his fingers. "I doubt you want illusionary cash, and being billed for something that was contributing to the rectification of his mistakes would serve Timoteo right." Juliano eyed the Arcobaleno thoughtfully, and that expression, combined with various surviving reports from when Juliano had been Heir had him sorely tempted to take cover under his desk. That expression portended _mayhem_. "Three things that might pay off my debt to you, Viper. One; Giotto and Ricardo's Mist is still running around; I would suggest doing something about him before he tries to kill _your_ Sky. Two, the Vindice were formed in my lifetime, and their leader is and was the only known Arcobaleno to survive the curse. You may want to exchange information with Bemuda von Veckenstein; and simply knowing his name will get you his attention." Something about what Juliano had just said had Mammon paying attention, and he would have to interrogate the little Mist for more information, later. "The third piece of information I'm keeping until you've spread the news that Timoteo and Iemitsu Sealed and crippled young Tsunayoshi around the alliance. I'd rather not have anyone suggest that Xanxus should execute him to secure his position. If he's anything like the Wrath Sky during my era, that'll end in an ocean of blood." Squalo raised an eyebrow at the Flame Ghost. "Mmm. Sabine di Giglio Nero was a _terror_ when enraged. She should be in your Family's journals somewhere; her anchor was a Superbi Sky.” Fuck. He remembered the stories now he had the name. She and Lupa Superbi had _terrorised_ just about everyone who had annoyed them, and neither of their Dons had been able to rein them in when they were enraged.

"... did you say they _Sealed_ Tsunayoshi."

"Yes." That was only the third time he’d felt the Mist Officer slipping into a genuine killing rage, and the way their pacifier went from barely glowing to a vivid, brilliant indigo with decidedly purple-red tones was equally ominous. As was the way the curse suddenly faded from his perceptions as Mammon’s Will spiked.

"Go. Make the idiot's life miserable. Just remember that if the Boss has to shake you down for enough money to run the Family you know he will, and then he'll kick your ass up and down the training rooms for it." Dino had tilted his head and he wondered what the Cavallone Sky was learning from watching him interact with, and command, one of the other Officers. Had Dino missed that he was the Head of the Varia, and Xanxus one of the Officers, like so many of the other members of the Alliance had?

"Mou. Fine." Mammon felt like they were sulking, but they had backed off the edge, slightly, at being given a target and a method to employ.

"Mammon, I've claimed Tsunayoshi as a younger sibling, _and_ I'm Reborn's student. If you leave him or Nana destitute, I _will_ demonstrate just how thoroughly I've learned the lessons he's taught me." Fucking hell, the Bronco really had developed a spine in the wake of Reborn and taking over his Family. He’d known the blonde had a knack for leadership and the ability to choose his weapons appropriately - they had a very profitable business relationship - but for Dino to have enough gumption to threaten an Arcobaleno _and_ a Varia Officer over a non-blood-related Sky was _fascinating_ , as was the blonde’s confidence he could follow up on the threat. Even Mammon felt impressed, and vanished in a flare of their Flames to go cause mayhem within the perimeters set.

"I'll leave you two to your 'discussion'." Juliano vanished into the ether, possibly following the Arcobaleno, given the information he'd bribed them with. And leaving the two of them staring at each other in silence.

"Voooiii. Don't want to take you near the Boss. Not if I'm being honest." Not with Xanxus and Basil in the infirmary and Lussuria still actively fussing over them both and treating them for after-effects of their individual injuries and bonding exhaustion. And Dino threatening their Mist Officer didn’t help _either_. He wanted him as far as possible from the vulnerable parts of his territory, and wasn’t in the mood to play nice any longer today.

"You're his Cloud and the Head of the Varia; I can wait to hear this from him directly." He caught himself preening like the one or two other Clouds he knew when their claim on their territories was acknowledged, and gave into the desire; Dino’s amusement at that said he was well aware of what he had just done, and that Dino at least subconsciously realised he was being courted as part of _another_ Cloud’s territory. "I need to get back to Namimori; I have things to teach Tsuna before his father invades, and then Reborn's ask me to train _your_ opponent Squalo. Watching the two of you fight is going to be hilarious."

"Voooiii. Bronco, what do you _know_?" His Flames flared in interest. If Dino thought that his fight with his counterpart was going to be entertaining, then the Cloud lurking in Namimori might actually be a challenge to fight.

"Only that by outing yourself as Xanxus's Cloud, and Iemitsu forcing the battles to happen you've got Fon's nephew - who he and I have trained - as your opponent. And Squalo?" Oh, he could _definitely_ look forward to that. Even if he doubted the other Cloud was a swordsman, he could deal with that issue if he got to face someone of _that_ calibre. "I know that you’ll find out about the retired master swordsman in Namimori. You’re very, very good at finding competition. But, if you kill or seriously injure Tsuyoshi Yamamoto there will be a _queue_ of people to kill you, and not all of them will play as nicely as I do."

"Voooiii!" His protest followed Dino and Romario out of the room. He wasn’t _that_ bad was he? And Namimori was sounding more and more interesting. He’d have to interrogate Lussuria as to how quickly his shitty-Sky could safely travel, and if that was going to take too long, he’d have to go ahead to investigate with, hmm, Belphegor and Basil perhaps?

… And shit. The first piece of information that Juliano had given Mammon had finally registered properly. Fuck. He was going to have to glue the miserly one to his Sky’s side to ward off attacks, and who the hell did he know who could hunt a several hundred year old Flame Ghost?


End file.
